Hot News Introducting 2010 The Blogger Template Designer

We’ve added a fair bit to Blogger over the years, but one thing that’s been constant for some time has been our collection of templates. While a number of talented designers around the web have offered their own fresh and interesting designs that you can apply to your Blogger blog, our stock set has grown a bit stale, and you’ve noticed. You let us know — in the forums, on Twitter, sitting next to us on airplanes, even from across the counter at a Harvard Square stationary store, and we’ve been listening.

Today we’re taking a big first step in improving not just our template designs, but all the ways that you can customize the look and layout of your blog. We even made a video with jaunty music to show it off:

Here’s what we’re launching today to Blogger in Draft:

• 15 new, highly-customizable templates from our design team, split into four families: Simple, Picture Window, Awesome Inc, and Watermark
• One-, two-, and three-column layouts for each template, with complete control over the size and arrangement of the columns
• Hundreds of background images and patterns from iStockphoto, the leading microstock image marketplace

Try it Now
Go to http://draft.blogger.com/ to log in to Blogger in Draft. (If you’ve never been there before, Blogger in Draft is just like regular Blogger, except with new, in-development features like this one.) Click on your blog’s “Layout” link to go to the Layout tab. The link to the Template Designer is at the end of the row of sub-tabs.

You can use the live preview to see your new template without affecting your blog. When you find a new look that you’re happy with, just click the “Apply to Blog” button to publish it to the world. Note: You can backup your existing template ahead of time by going to Layout > Edit HTML. We recommend this if you have a customized blog design that you might want to go back to.

Classic template blogs: If you have a “Template” link or tab instead of “Layout,” you’ll first need to switch from Classic to Layouts before you can try out the Template Designer. Go to Classic > Customize Design and follow the instructions there. You’ll need to switch to one of our old templates first, but then you’ll be able to use the Template Designer to pick a new one.

Tips from the Blogger Team

• Get your links to match a background image quickly by using the Background panel’s “Main color theme” to adjust all of your blog’s colors at once. This works particularly well with Simple’s second design.

• With a three-column footer, you can fit in several gadgets to interest your readers after they’re done reading your post. For inspiration, read Derek Powazek’s post, “Embrace your bottom!”

• If you’re using our new Pages feature, put the Page List gadget in the wide section at the top of your blog. We’ve added unique tab designs to all of the new templates.
• Many of the patterns in the background image picker are semi-transparent, to let your blog’s background color show through. Look for the “transparency page curl” to see which patterns these are.
• The Attribution gadget (added to the footer by all new templates) is there to give credit not just to the designer and artist of the background image, but to you as well. Edit its settings by clicking “Edit” on Layout > Page Elements to add your own authorship or copyright information.

Get Involved

• Show off your new design on Twitter by tweeting your blog’s URL with the hashtag #newbloggertemplate. We’ll be looking for creative designs to feature in upcoming blog posts or as Blogs of Note.
• We’re taking feature requests. Let us know what else you’d like to see with our Google Moderator page. (And don’t worry: uploading your own background image is already filed and at the top of our list!)
• To report bugs or discuss the Template Designer in more detail, start a thread on our discussion forum. Include “Template Designer” in the subject so we’ll be sure to see it.
• Do you design templates for Blogger? Join our template designer group for documentation and discussion on working with the new templates, as well as details on how to get your designs into the Template Designer.

Over the coming weeks and months we’ll be adding new features, templates, and images guided by the feedback we hear from you.

Miscellaneous Notes

• The Template Designer is not supported on Internet Explorer 6, nor, for that matter, are the new templates. While we’ve made an effort to ensure that they’ll still be readable, the new designs are not going to look particularly attractive on IE6. We strongly encourage the very small number of bloggers and readers still using IE6 to upgrade to a more modern browser. For more information about browsers, visit Google’s What Browser? site.
  
• The rounded corners and drop shadows used in several of the templates may not be visible in older versions of some browsers. Opera users will need to wait for Opera 10.5, currently in public pre-alpha release. IE7 and 8 users will not see these effects within the Template Designer, but will see most of them on the live blog itself.
• From within the Template Designer you can only move gadgets around, you can’t add, delete, or change their settings. Those features are still on the Layout > Page Elements page.
• Some gadgets, such as Poll, Reactions, or third-party Google Gadgets will not reflect color changes in the live preview but will after the template is applied. Others, such as Followers and AdSense, will not change colors automatically at all. It may be easiest to remove and re-add these gadgets to refresh their palettes, though you could also tweak the colors by hand by editing their settings.
• Customizations to widget templates will be cleared when applying a new template to preserve the new layout. If you have made changes to your widget templates, save them first by going to Layout > Edit HTML and clicking “Download Full Template.” You’ll be able to copy them back in as needed after you apply your new template.

Posted by Pete Hopkins

How to Design And Make Money with Your Blog

Many bloggers simply blog to share their thoughts with everyone else. However, there are also other bloggers that create blogs to make money online. Blog can be monetized in many ways. Some of the monetization methods include Google Adsense, CPM Advertising, banner advertising, and selling text link ads, affiliate marketing and sponsored reviews.

Google Adsense is the most popular contextual advertising on the internet. To be qualified as an Adsense publisher, you must first submit your website to Google and let the Google Adsense Team review it. The website that you submit must be 6 months old. Once they had sent you an approval email, you can login with your username and password and obtain the Adsense code to paste into your website. When the ad is being clicked, you will earn certain amount of money. The earnings per click can range from $0.01 – $100. The success of Google Adsense depends on the traffic and the click through rate (CTR) of the website. The most favorable position is under the title. You can also blend Google Adsense along with the content so that it will get higher click through rates.

CPM advertising allows you to make money through the number of impressions. Impressions refer to the number of times the ads is displayed. CPM earnings are calculated by per 1000 impression. For example, 100,000 impressions will generate $100 monthly. The CPM rates is different from different CPM advertising companies. Popular CPM advertising networks include interClick, Tribal Fusion, Technorati, Value Click, and BurstMedia. The CPM rate ranges from $0.05 – $10 per 1000 impressions. CPM advertising is suitable for website that receives a high volume of visitors.

Banner advertising is one of the most popular methods to monetize your blog. If you want to monetize your blog through banner advertising, your blog must be popular and receive lots of traffic. You will also be responsible in managing the banner sales and payments.

Since Google announce penalty for websites that sell text link ads, this monetization method has become less popular. Despite that, many blog owners still sell text links ads on their blog. You can sell text links directly through your blog or through a text link broker such as Text-Link-Ads.

Affiliate marketing allows you to make money through commission whenever someone buy a product through the affiliate link. Affiliate marketing can be based on CPA (cost per action) or CPL (cost per lead). Amazon.com affiliate program is one of the most popular methods to make money in affiliate marketing. Other popular affiliate programs include SEOBook, Ebay, GoDaddy, and etc. An affiliate network groups together all the affiliate programs which you can sign up. Affiliate network like Commission Junction offers a single payment for all the earnings that you made through your affiliate programs. Popular affiliate network include Commission Junction, Link Share, Google Affiliate Network and ShareASale.

Sponsored reviews are initially started by PayPerPost. Sponsored reviews are a monetization method that allows bloggers to make money by blogging. When you are approved, someone will be able to hire you through the website to write sponsored posts. The topic of the post depends on the buyer. The topics can range from software reviews, hotels, weight loss, gardening, technology and etc. If your blog has page rank, and receive a substantial amount of traffic, you will have a higher chance of being approved.

Tips to Create a Website in Minutes

To create website in minutes, now does that sound tempting to you? If it does then we would like to demonstrate you how latest internet technologies can boost up your overall business performance. You will be able to make a website in minutes with high-quality and low price.

There are a bunch of proposals on the internet, but not all of them will bring you the best result that you are looking for. With Site2you it’s a whole different story, all you need to is: a premium-quality template, ready to use texts, your original photos or images, corporate elements, a domain name, hosting space and a couple of minutes of your time.

Let’s say that you don’t have any specific software or special programming skills, but you still want to make website. Then the best choice for you would be to use an online site-builder Site2you.

For the sake of simplicity we have broken down the whole procedure into 3 simple steps that will fully allow you to comprehend how you would get that marvelous webpage.

Step number 1

You choose a template that is basically the foundation for your web child that has all the structures and layouts included. Then you edit its default items so it would correspond to your personal requirements. After that you change the name of the template to your company’s name and upload your logo. You can also play around with the replacement of some images and parts of information on the site texts. We have everything structured for you by certain subjects so you just need to replace the texts with your original ones or get the pre-written ones and change the company name and a few other things to make them match your corporate identity.

Step number 2

You choose the domain name which will be your web address where your clients will go to for information and to check out your website. If you build a website
with a virtual site-builder you don’t need to spend hours of your precious time in search of a good hosting company, since we will kindly upload all your information to the website from day one. All you need to do is to register or point your pre-registered domain name to your site and leave all the rest to our Support Team.

Step number 3

Set up your contact form and adjust it with your new email address. After that you are to test it and make sure that everything looks as good as you expected. Basically this is the final stage and at this point you can show the website you your business partners and clients, we are confident that the will be impressed by the result. As you with us you spend less time and your website and you achieve bigger results.

Site2you is always glad to help you no matter how fastidious you are about your webpage or what results you are expecting we will help you build website
that you will admire for a long time. Our Support team will help you with the design, programming and webmastering. All of this is performed at one fixed price, since we have a one standard package for all our services.

So if you are a beginner or a professional, or maybe you are just in search of a good site-builder, just visit us online at Site2you.com and you will receive the service you deserve.

The 2010 Blogger Winners and Top 10 of Social Media Blogs

Social media is the talk of the planet. But where do you go to learn the best tips and tactics? Look no further…

Tons of nominations came in. Our panel of social media experts carefully reviewed the nominees and finalists. What follows are the winners of Social Media Examiner’s Top 10 Social Media Blogs for 2010.

If you’re looking to reap the rewards of social media, these rich blogs need to be at the top of your reading list.

1. Chris Brogan: The Elvis of social media and the king of common sense, Chris Brogan is in a league of his own.
2. Social Media Explorer: Social media all-star Jason Falls provides a fresh and interesting take on all things social media.
3. Mashable: The world’s source for social media news, Mashable is the place to go for breaking stories.
4. Convince & Convert: Jay Baer provides rich content for businesses seeking to embrace social media.
5. Altitude: Amber Naslund offers a breath of fresh air with smart, inspiring and personal social media insight.
6. CopyBlogger: The king of engaging content, Brian Clark and his team help businesses persuade in a 2.0 world.
7. Brand Builder: For businesses looking to dive deep into social media discussion, check out Olivier Blanchard’s rich insights.
8. Diva Marketing: Toby Bloomberg’s blog provides a wide array of social media advice.
9. Kikolani: Looking for great “getting started” social media guidance? Then frequent this blog.
10. Future Buzz: A nice mix of stories and reviews makes Adam Singer’s site one that should be on your radar.

Congratulations to the winners. Be sure to check out these amazing blogs!

Share the love: Feel free to post the above list on your blog (just reference this post).

The badge of distinction: If you’re a winner, feel free to post the image you see here on your blog and please link back to this page.

A special thanks to our judges! Thanks to Scott Monty (Ford), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs) and David Meerman Scott (author New Rules of Marketing and PR) for your participation.

Do you frequent any of these blogs? Share your comments below.

10 tips of effective bloggers news and guide to make yourself a better blogger

There are tens of thousands of blogs out there, many of which will never make it past the initial stages of early bloghood. Sometimes this is just due to bad luck, harsh competition, and poor planning, but equally as likely is that the decline of these blogs is due to their owners’ poor management or inability to effectively maintain the site and communicate with their followers. To help ensure that you keep your blog active and popular, here are a few tips to make yourself a better blogger.

1. Go in with a Game Plan

So many bloggers begin with ideas of grandeur, but soon find that they have no real structure or organization for pushing their ideas forward. If you want to be a better blogger, go into blog ownership with a game plan. Lay out what you want to accomplish with your blog, where you want it to go, and what you want it to become, and then do it.

2. Follow the Golden Rule of Blogging

The Golden Rule of blogging is to “treat the visitors to your blog as you would want to be treated.” It’s as simple as that. Being respectful to your visitors, replying to their posts in a timely fashion, and making their visit as easy and effective as possible are important aspects to winning loyal followers. Unless your site is devoted to being rude and disrespectful, or acting this way is a part of your site’s mantra, it is important to remember the old adage, “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

3. Communicate Properly

A large part of enforcing the Golden Rule is by understanding how to effectively communicate on your blog. Sure, you’re busy and you may not always have time to respond to every comment or question immediately, but by making your best effort to respond constructively to as many visitors as possible, you can help keep your site visits high and your word of mouth popularity spreading.

4. Look Ahead

With the blogosphere constantly changing, it’s important to keep your eyes on the road. Just keeping pace with the competition probably won’t win you that lion’s share of visitors for which you might be hoping. Being constantly on the lookout for the latest and greatest when it comes to the subject matter of your blog can help keep you at the forefront of your blog topic.

5. Don’t Lose Sight of the Goal

It can be difficult when you get into the meat of your blogging activities not to get lost in the monotony of posts, replies, and updating of information. It is important to keep your larger goals in mind, and not become stranded in the swampy bog of your blog’s menial, everyday operations.

6. Provide Reliable Information

Try to make a habit of posting only the best information related to your blog topic. By staying current and posting reliable information, you will hopefully build a loyal group of followers and the quality of your blog will bring people back time and again.

7. Be Devoted to Your Topic

While you don’t necessarily have to love your blog topic, it can certainly help to have a strong interest in the subjects upon which you write. By being devoted to your topic, you can increase the likelihood that your subject matter remains consistent as well as get more enjoyment out of spending time working on your blog.

8. Present Information Effectively

Clear, concise writing, with a proper balance of information and graphics, and an easy to navigate structure can help keep your blog popular. There is hardly a bigger turn off for those visiting your blog than to be lost in a jumble of text and poorly placed links and graphics.

9. Develop a Routine

While not every blogger needs a set schedule when it comes to updating and maintaining his or her blog or blogs, at times, having a routine can help keep you on track. Having some structure to your blogging activities can be especially helpful if you are maintaining more than one blog.

10. Persevere

Being a successful blogger probably won’t always be an easy path to travel. It will take time and effort to create your blog and build a following. Making it a habit to understand this and persevere through the hard times might just be what it takes to raise your blog above the competition.

Your Effective Habits

What are some of the habits you adhere to in order to make your blogging effective and successful?

Nice Blogger templates

SEO Optimized Blogger Template

Here are a few new links Blogger users:

- 1024px template for Blogger – By Carl Galloway (demo)
- andreas00 template for Blogger – By Mark Olson (demo)
- andreas00blg template for Blogger – By Citronella and Herco (demo)
- andreas02blg template for Blogger – By Citronella and Herco (note: Greek text)
- andreas04 template for Blogger (alternate images) – By Ezline
- andreas04 template for Blogger (original images) – By Havuk

Do you know about any other Blogger template based on one of my designs? Let me know and I will add it to the list. I will reorganize the categories and the ports pages on May 1st, so the more links I have the better.